Re: Confused about /usr/bin/nm, linker, and stripped libs

[Miloslav Trmac <mitr volny cz>]

Hello,
John Ellson napsal(a):
> These days rpm installs most libs stripped of their symbols, which is
> fine as it makes them smaller and presumably load faster.
> 
> But how does the linker resolve symbols against stripped libs?   And if
> the linker can do it, why can't /usr/bin/nm ?
There are two types of symbol information:
- ELF symbols, used for linking (both static and dynamic)
- debugging information, used only by the debugger.

strip and nm works on debugging information, not ELF symbols.  You can
use e.g. readelf to see the ELF symbols.
	Mirek